Freeman Sundays @ 3 proceeds help fund music scholarships

Emily Mason likes to see the light bulb go off. That’s what she calls it when a person
discovers her passion.

For Mason, the light bulb went off when she was 6 years old and realized she loved
to sing. And she was good at it — very good, in fact.

Teachers encouraged her to take additional lessons to hone her alto voice, which she
did by enrolling in an arts magnet school in her hometown of Charlotte, N.C.

When the time came to pick a college major, she says it was a no-brainer — voice performance
with the goal of teaching music to elementary school students. Mason hopes one day
to use her voice to encourage the next generation.

While choosing a major was easy, deciding on a school was hard. The University of
South Carolina had everything she wanted: a large, state-supported school close to
home, with SEC football and the opportunity for a vibrant social life and, most importantly,
an excellent music program. But as a child from a single-parent home, money was tight,
so Mason had to find a way to afford school. A scholarship funded with the proceeds
of the Cornelia Freeman Concert Series solved her problem.

Mason was relieved when she received the scholarship because she felt home at Carolina's School
of Music. “I can be on stage, by myself singing, but feel like there’s a whole community
supporting me,” she says.

Attending Carolina gave Mason the opportunity to travel abroad. Last year, she went
with the concert choir to Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. This fall, as a
senior, she will perform in the Sondheim opera, “Sunday in the Park with George.”

The Cornelia Freeman Concert Series, named in honor of a longtime donor and supporter
of the School of Music, had long been an autumn fixture on the School of Music’s calendar.
This year, the series merges with the Chamber Innovista and expands with dates throughout
the year.

The newly named Freeman Sundays @ 3 will feature Carolina’s music faculty in fresh
and vibrant chamber music programs that pair established masterpieces alongside brand
new works.

The series opens Sept. 4 with “The Soloists,” featuring works by masters Brahms and
Beethoven, and less-known composers Hugo Wolf and Guillaume de Machaut. This concert
also presents arrangements for Jazz Sextet by Bert Ligon and Thelonious Monk. The
September concert introduces the School of Music’s newest faculty members Ari Streisfeld,
violin, and Rachel Calloway, mezzo-soprano. They perform an arrangement by Streisfeld
of “Two Ballads” by Guillaume de Machaut. Pianist Joseph Rackers plays Beethoven’s
Piano Sonata, Op. 109, and Donald Gray, baritone and Sharon Rattray, piano perform
Brahms’ “Four Songs” from Op. 32 and Wolf’s “Abschied.”

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